COVID-19 constituted an unprecedented “transboundary mega crisis” (Boin et al. 2020) that referred to all spheres of the states and societies. Originated in China and then spreading rapidly throughout the world it was probably the first truly global crisis generating an external shock for every country (Wurster 2021). On the political level, governments were confronted with a huge effort of crisis management domestically as well as in terms of regional and global coordination. On the economic level severe impacts on the overall production and thus on the well-being of economies stood at risk, provoking large-scale attempts of economic containment (Hörisch et al. 2022). While the public health systems were especially challenged, also on the societal level, enormous social cohesion and solidarity were needed and thus invoked by governments in order to tackle the crisis.